An adventurer competing on a reality TV survival show said he was tricked into eating a protected bird due to a “very deep need to eat”.
Spencer “Corry” Jones and teammate Oliver Dev were disqualified from the Race to Survive show in New Zealand after killing and eating a weka, or Maori chicken – a plump, flightless brown bird the size of a chicken.
US whitewater river guides were competing with other teams around checkpoints on New Zealand’s South Island, taking only what they could carry.
In the program’s footage, Jones apologized for disrespecting the country by eating the bird.
“It was short-sighted, it was foolish,” he said, before adding that “a very deep need to eat” was behind the rule-breaking.
“We had strategies for the races, but we didn’t prepare for starvation,” he explained, adding that the “starvation mode mentality” took over, slowing down his thoughts and cognition.
New Zealand’s conservation department issued a written warning to the reality show following the incident.
The death and consumption of a weka, a protected species, happened as Mr Jones and Mr Dev battled the elements to survive and win a grueling race.
The show, from Original Productions, thrusts nine two-person teams into the New Zealand wilderness, tasking them with navigating rugged terrain while also obtaining their own food and water.
The last team to reach any checkpoint is eliminated until the show finds a winner. The winning team receives $500,000.
In a statement this week, New Zealand’s conservation department said it was aware that “cast members were tired and suffering from significant hunger, in an unusual group dynamic situation”, but that killing and eating a protected native species still was “unacceptable”.
Authorities said they were clear with the producer that protected species it could not be harvested or consumed and that it had alerted the program to the need to follow conservation rules, Radio New Zealand reported.
The department confirmed that the company alerted it to the incident shortly after it occurred.
The Telegraph has contacted Original Productions for comment.
On its website, it warns that contestants “will need to endure physical pain” to win the prize. “Doubles must choose between the fastest or safest route as they strive to cross the finish line,” she says.
